As part of its comprehensive preparations for the Passover holiday, the IDF Rabbinate worked to facilitate kosher-for-Passover equipment and Seder night supplies for all IDF units. These efforts extended not only to assembly and training areas located in Israel, but also to combat-ready units in the Judea and Samaria, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, all while maintaining readiness for combat escalation and extreme scenarios.
Seder Kit for Combat Soldiers
To enable all soldiers on operational missions such as: positions and ambushes, vessels, aircraft, armored vehicles, etc., to celebrate and mark the Seder night according to Jewish law, 7,000 individually pre-packaged "mitzvah meals” were distributed to soldiers in combat zones, containing all the food items necessary to conduct a Passover seder.
The packages contained a Seder plate with all its components (handmade matzah, grape juice, roasted meat, bitter herbs, charoset, and a karpas vegetable), as well as pamphlets containing halakha guidelines for religious soldiers dealing with combat-related limitations.
In addition, the IDF Rabbinate trained hundreds of soldiers and volunteer Seder leaders in a special workshop, who conducted the Seder in units and in the field.
The Head of the IDF Rabbinate Department, Colonel Rabbi Chaim Weisberg, explained the motivation behind the preparations. “The IDF Rabbinate,” he said, “working in close cooperation with logistics personnel at the General Staff Supply Center, did everything possible so that soldiers felt the spirit of the holiday and as much at home as possible on Passover. As part of this, attention and optimal responses were given to unique populations such as: celiacs, vegans, vegetarians, and those requiring stricter kosher certification.”
Passover Distribution to All IDF Units
Beyond the Seder meals, the following items were distributed to soldiers stationed in the Syrian, Lebanese, Gaza, Judea and Samaria sectors, as well as assembly areas:
- Over 83,000 Haggadahs
- Over 200,000 pounds of matzah, including 17,000 pounds of handmade matzot
- Matzot with strict kosher certification ("Eida Haredit") for Haredi soldiers.
- 390 tons of meat cuts, 420 tons of chicken, and 64 tons of fish, all kosher-for-Passover
- 710,000 kosher-for-Passover “rolls”
- Thousands of Seder plates, wine cups, kippot, and prayer books.
Additionally, dozens of morale-boosting materials were produced and distributed in the thousands, dealing with strengthening the fighting spirit as well as halakhic guidelines for Passover observance this year, with a special section regarding Passover Eve falling on Shabbat.
Equally critical from a kosher standpoint, the IDF Rabbinate worked to “turn over” all IDF food facilities and make them kosher-for-Passover, from the Syrian Hermon down to the southernmost outpost in Eilat. Thousands of kitchens and other facilities were “koshered” in a special and highly complex operation by hundreds of rabbinical and professional staff, regular and reserve soldiers, at times requiring the use of blowtorches and industrial size vats of boiling water.
Said Passover Project Coordinator, Colonel (res.) Rabbi Chagai Velusky, "Every year is challenging in its own right, but this year was a particular challenge because of the uncertainty. Right up until Passover Eve, not everything was finalized due to security considerations. We knew everything would be fluid and volatile, yet alongside this, we needed to prepare.
"All the kosher preparations were done without affecting operational activity, which is a very important principle that guides us in preparation for kosher certification and in the certification itself.
"An additional complication unique to this year was that the Seder night fell on Saturday night. This meant the seder started at a relatively late hour, which challenged us to speed up the Seder in certain locations that rotated out personnel during Seder night for operational reasons. It also required us to provide special fruit-juice matzah for soldiers to use instead of challah for their Shabbat meals, as it was already forbidden to serve leavened products in any of the meals on IDF bases before Shabbat.
"Not only that, but for the first time, we also prepared across the border in Syria, which was a challenge unto itself. The intense activity in Judea and Samaria further complicated matters, as during the week of “koshering” itself, additional battalion rotations were called up and we had to provide kosher-for-Passover facilities for them as well.”
Chaim Goldberg is a rabbi, psychologist and journalist whose father Hillel is editor of the Intermountain Jewish News in Denver.
Addendum by Rochel Sylvetsky:
A grandson, now serving an 80 day reserve duty stint up north, was not given leave for the Seder but was given all he needed by the IDF, which grants leave for the Seder to fathers with children before single soldiers or young marrieds. In fact, my son in law's parents kept a letter from the IDF to that effect from years ago, apologizing for their son's missing the family seder but explaining that this is the reason.
A month before the 1982 Lebanon War, our family volunteered and led a seder on the base closest to Lebanon which you can read about by clicking the link.
On the other hand, even before that, my late husband was in the Army Rabbinate and was never home for Bedikat Chametz because he was busy koshering army kitchens!